Driving on the continent & rear view mirror - new discovery!

**Johnny31** · 19-09-2013,09:28 AM

A nice one I stumbled upon in Elsa:
I guess everybody knows that with xenons, you just enable "the thing" via MMI. However, the auto dimming mirror has a life of its own! It needs to be separately adjusted (I guess that is why mine wasn't working as good as I was expecting it to this summer)!
So, according to the write-up, the magic happens like this ("button 2" being the on/off button on the mirror according to the diagram):

/quote/

– Press and hold button -2- for 12 to 15 seconds until display shows “L” (for left-hand drive vehicles) or “A” (for right-hand drive vehicles).

– Press the button again briefly to change the setting for right-hand or left-hand drive.

/quote/

Can anybody confirm this works on their vehicles (as, in my case, there is nothing on the display)?

**ukgroucho** · 19-09-2013,10:20 AM

Nope.. started the car and held down the on / off button on the rear view mirror for > 15 secs and all I succeeded in doing was turning the green LED off.

I suspect that if you have bi-xenons (and of course you have navigation) then it just takes care of it all for you as it works out that you are somewhere where they drive on the wrong side of the road.

Not quite sure what behaviour change you would expect to see with the auto-dim mirror.. maybe they make the sensor a bit less sensitive to cope with the fact that vehicles behind you will have dipped beams which direct more light to the right ... I dunno. I'm sure someone on here will have some insight.

Wuffles · 19-09-2013,12:46 PM

Originally Posted by ukgroucho

Nope.. started the car and held down the on / off button on the rear view mirror for > 15 secs and all I succeeded in doing was turning the green LED off.

I suspect that if you have bi-xenons (and of course you have navigation) then it just takes care of it all for you as it works out that you are somewhere where they drive on the wrong side of the road.

Not quite sure what behaviour change you would expect to see with the auto-dim mirror.. maybe they make the sensor a bit less sensitive to cope with the fact that vehicles behind you will have dipped beams which direct more light to the right ... I dunno. I'm sure someone on here will have some insight.

Ah, but I checked the whole "sets the lights to correct side based on navigation info" thing and it didn't work. So expect none of it to work?

**ukgroucho** · 19-09-2013,01:24 PM

When you say "checked" do you mean set something in the MMI or checked that it worked and it did not?

I can find nothing in my MMI to actually set that relates to tourist mode etc.

I have the HDD based nav.. not sure if that changes things.

Wuffles · 19-09-2013,02:14 PM

It was in another thread. Someone suggested (and posted a picture of the manual) the car switches to right hand driving light settings based on location. You need the right lights and HDD nav, which I have. It didn't do it in France.

**MAVAV** · 19-09-2013,08:15 PM

Originally Posted by Wuffles

It was in another thread. Someone suggested (and posted a picture of the manual) the car switches to right hand driving light settings based on location. You need the right lights and HDD nav, which I have. It didn't do it in France.

Apologies for going off-topic but unfortunately my lights didn't change over automatically either when I was in France this summer, even though its there in the manual. I have HDD NAV and LED lights, but still needed to go to the MMI set-up to change to driving on the right hand side. This then gave me a warning every time I started the engine that range was reduced due to the operation of the headlight converter, which told me that my lights had been changed. No such message was present if I left the MMI setting on its normal setting for driving on the left hand side.

**ukgroucho** · 19-09-2013,08:40 PM

Where in the MMI did you change it? I cannot find anything in my MMI

**Whippy53** · 19-09-2013,08:54 PM

MMI settings, outside lights, driving on right, if you have adaptive lights it does it itself and may not be in the menu.

Wuffles · 19-09-2013,08:58 PM

Originally Posted by Whippy53

MMI settings, outside lights, driving on right, if you have adaptive lights it does it itself and may not be in the menu.

I have adaptive lights and it's in the menu, there's no "does it itself" that I am aware of.

**MAVAV** · 20-09-2013,09:06 AM

LED lights are adaptive. The point of my post was that even with the top of the range navigation and light system it seems that you have to manually change the lights to drive on the right hand side. Not that I am complaining, its easier than using those silly plastic stickers, my only gripe is that the manual claims that it is done automatically.